What I Did on My Vacation- JANE-don't peek unless you want to see part of your swap gift :)

Picture heavy post--What I did on my Vacation
By Lucy
First off just to let you all know, I'm back in the holiday mood after my quick moment of self pity and mourning of what "used to be". As Nancy B said and others agreed in the comments from the last post, it's not about the memories we had anymore as a child, because you can't live your life trying to recreate them...it's just not going to happen. It's now about my children and THEIR memories and creating new traditions of our own that they can reflect back on when they grow older--they the circle will begin all over again with their children, as it should be.
Sometimes I forget that I'm 38 years old and an adult. I still feel like a kid who should be waking up at her Mother's house on Christmas morning to the smell of cinnamon rolls and ham cooking in the oven.
I'm the one that's baking the cinnamon rolls and ham now.

Okay, back to today's post. I've had 2 extra days off this week and used them pretty wisely. I say pretty wisely because not everything on my list got crossed off but a good portion completed which relieves some stress from my shoulders. I posted these pictures in the wrong order as to what I did but anyway---my main objectives of this 4 day weekend for me were:

1) Clean the house extra well (finished about everything)
2) Take all my craft stuff that was previously housed on my tiny dining room table, spilling over onto my breakfast bar, all over my little display sidecart, and piled on both of my hutches on either side of my fireplace and put it all in my ACTUAL craft room.(It's in there now--but not too neatly as you will see in an upcoming picture)
3) Decorate some more for Thanksgiving (I'm of the school of thought lately that I need to celebrate one holiday at a time so I have not taken any Christmas decorations out yet).
4) Finish up my November Sister Swap package (finished and shipped!)
5) Clean out all of my drawers in my kitchen and cabinet (check on the silverware drawer, utensil drawer, and 2 junk drawers....not too bad, that was a 4 hour project right there).

6) Get my holiday grocery shopping done (check-3 stores and 200 dollars later YIKES)
7) Take Josh to the movies (we went to see Fred Claus....it was cute, not as funny as you would think but a good movie to take the kids too).
8) Complete 2 more art pieces for listing on Etsy (ummmm, nope didn't happen, they're still WIP at this point).
9) Relax a bit (ummmm as you can see, not a whole lot of relaxing went on, but at least I didn't have to rush all weekend to do everything)
10) Gather up my recipes for Thanksgiving and make 2 of the breads and freeze them (banana bread done...but don't like how it turned out, pumpkin bread done and it's delish....recipes still need to be gathered but I know most of them by heart so it's all good).

Okay on to my fall decorations--on Friday I stopped by Michael's...ahem, not for me but I wanted to get a couple of extra things to pop in my swap package and low and behold what did I see?? 90% off all of their fall foliage. Now mind you, I'm not a floral decorator but at those prices, how could I resist???? I've had several vases sitting here I've picked up at yard sales all empty and lonely so I decided to jazz up the mansion and created these 4 pieces for get this-----$20.00!!! You heard me right, just five dollars a piece and we have some nice decorations for Thanksgiving! WHOOOO HOOOO

My little chunky butt helper, he helped decide where each flower went where and was pretty happy with himself. That milk jug container was purchased for 50 cents at a yard sale this summer.
OHHH and loook it, you can see my itty bitty dining room table again, and it doesn't have paint splatters everywhere (that you can see anyway thanks to the table cloth...LOL

Wow--is that my breakfast counter???? It actually is sans drying paintings and misc craft thingys.
Feature in this pick is a beautiful felted pumpkin Miss Heidi sent me a couple of weeks ago. Isn't it beautiful???
I also have a bunch of pine cones--huge ones at that and I painted them gold for a few more decorations (I can use these for Christmas as well--I'm going to add some glitter to them next week).

You can barely tell I had piles of stuff on the hutches now that my craft stuff is tucked away.
I don't really feature my house a whole lot because it's really not anything special, not fancy, and it's not mine but I've tried to jazz it up with my yard sale purchases as much as possible. Oh-another feature is that rocking chair--I bought that last spring for 10 dollars! It was all weathered and yucky so DS and I sanded and painted her back to life.

Another close up of my florals decorations DS and I created :)

Where did all my craft stuff go?? Ummmm one guess. LOL I should be ashamed of myself. And this is only one side of the room. I spared you from seeing the other 3 sides :)

Here's a peek at my finished "garland" project for my partner Jane--I chose to do an altered hanger with home made cinnamon dough ornaments that I painted and distressed, along with 2 ATC with photo transfers altered as a focal point.

The top ATC says--
"The Kindness of Strangers" which is perfect for Jane I think--she has come into my life and in just a few short months has shown me so much kindness, and although we are not really strangers anymore--we both dived into our swap with a leap and a prayer and have found that we are two different but kindred spirits that have become fast friends. I hope many of you have found this same connection during this swap. :)
....The bottom ATC says" Live Your Questions"--again, I think that is a perfect saying for artistically minded people especially. I think every poem, every story, every painting is a way to explore your questions you have about the world, your observations of those musings and a way to share with the rest of us what your viewpoint or your observations are. What a shame it would be if you did not "Live Your Questions".

Here's the tags I made for Jane--I had an idea to make tags for all seasons but I only had time to do 'fall and winter' as it turned out. Maybe I'll include spring and summer in my last swap package. I love how they turned out though!! I used metallic powders and gloss gel medium on coffee stained tags that I dyed to create a kinda faux copper look, then I embossed with gold and silver. Jane sent me a heat gun and some embossing powders as a surprise and generous gift back in August, so I thought it was a perfect opportunity to use her gift by giving something back to her that I made with it in appreciation.

Close up view of the cards again.
Do you think these would sell on Etsy if I made more of them??? There's tons of tag makers out there but I haven't seen any like these--so I thought maybe I might make some more and add them to my shop this week.

In the spirit of Sweet Goodness swaps--though not required for this swap, I had to add this lovely snowflake pyrex dish I found last week while thrifting. It just "magically"matches my color theme :) Now don't be haters ladies, do you know how much I paid for this?? (close your eyes Jane--) 50 cents!! AND, I didn't just get one--I picked up two. So now Jane and I each have one. I sure hope it makes it during shipping and doesn't break!!! I really hate sending breakables after one bad experience selling on EBAY--I've always have been nervous about sending anything that can easily break.

Last but not least--that same yard sale I picked up all these cans of gloss spray, matte spray, fixative, acrylic spray of one sort or another and 1 can of gold---all for 50 cents each! Almost all of the cans are full---WHOOOO HOOOO! It was fate as I was on the last little bit of my only can of varnish---phew. Things happen for a reason, that's evident even when you are out yard saling!

It's back to work tomorrow, but I can truly say, I've had a nice break and look forward to a great week ahead and a wonderful new holiday with my family :)

Cheers!